Visions Beyond Vengence
by ZeoViolet
Summary: Count D and his pets, and those like him, move in one world, and the humans move in another, blind to what is around them. If someone was caught between these worlds....which path do they follow?


_**NOTICE: FOR THE LOVE OF HOLY HANNAH PEOPLE READ THE DISCLAIMERS BEFORE YOU BEGIN! I do not like getting reveiews 'informing' me of differences that I SPECIFICALLY state here in the disclaimer to avoid such confusion!**_

_**Thank you!**_

_Disclaimer: Pet Shop of Horrors was created by Matsuri Akino. I don't own the canon characters therin. I only own Aya Kynah (Yes, it is a name I pulled out of thin air with no regards to any sort of origin. D's family had it in for all of humanity anways.)_

_If you are going to read this story, be warned. This does not include Shin PSoH, which is still in Japan and I have not seen. I read all the manga except for volume four, which I am trying with great difficulty to get ahold of. If you haven't read the manga you won't understand this anyways. _

_It was a very good ending, and I liked it a lot, but a big part of me is overwhelmingly unsatisfied and rearing an old itch I haven't felt in...a long while. Humanity may be full of darkness but I have a little more faith in it than that. I'm haunted by a vague feeling that, for all the genoicde they suffered, hatred they felt, and wanting for revenge, (and the original giving himself up to the earth in the fashion he did) perhaps D's line lost sight of an even bigger picture. For all humanity is full of hatred, I wonder if perhaps, infected by that same feeling in a different way, D's line also lost something they may have once been famous for. Realms that could no longer be entered because of emotions triggered by genocide, and that can create an even more rabid darkness._

_Perhaps it is how I see the world, but for a good ending it just left me unsatisfied, and feeling that there should be more. Thus the idea for this was born._

_It means that generally, while I will resurrect many facts from the last novel, and generally uses the Count D family backstory revealed in this AU setting volume ten never really happened-at least, in this version, not yet, if at all-I have not gotten that far. I wanted this to stay in California. Some things have changed. The concept of the lone warrior, the last left of his kind, in my mind has been changed to a small handful of survivors, even if they gave themselves up to the earth and pledged much the same thing. They may have seperated and lost contact with each other over the generations, but their descendants never forgot the original slaughter, and the pain. Maybe one, however, disobeyed his father and fell for the love of a human woman, and the resulting child caught between two worlds in a way that could tear her apart. Any other differences will be noted, and are likely deliberate. If you don't like this concept, leave at once. I won't tolerate pointless flames with no critquing value. _

_Rated PG-13, or Teen for but later on down the road, the rating may be upped to Mature. I'll have to see about that. In this section, mostly for language. _

Visions Beyond Vengence

By ZeoViolet

The rain came pounding down mercilessly. It was a ghastly gray wall that seemed to have no penetration into the gloom.

Until too late.

The tiny white kitten let out a cry of horror as, breaking through the grayness like an enormous monster, a huge automobile came crashing right in her path.

_Why_? Why did she have to die this way, when she'd been innocently crossing the road? She was already lost from her home, hungry, and frightened...

"Gotcha!"

The kitten let out another squeal of surprise as gentle arms close about her, and she felt herself rolling-

There was a loud shriek as the driver of the car slammed on the brakes, amazed he'd not hit the young female figure that had darted out of nowhere.

"Dammit, lady!" The woman seemed to pointedly ignore the angry yells hurled on her head as she staggered up from the pavement, soaking wet. "Are-you-totally-_mad_! I nearly squashed you to death, and you only do it to save a fuckin' _kitten_?"

The young woman didn't even give him a side glance. Her sole concern was for the shivering young thing in her arms, a young creature that, to her eyes, was a young kitten--and also a very lost young child.

"There, now," she soothed, her small hand stroking the head and feeling sorrow at the big blue eyes that turned up at her, from a face that seemed to alternate between kitten and human, before deciding to remain that of a little human girl. "You're safe now. You'll be all right."

The frustrated driver finally gave up yelling and squealed off, swearing loudly to see his therapist before the day was out.

"Th-thank you," sniffled the child/kitten. "I thought...I thought I was gonna _die_!"

And she promptly burst into tears again.

The young woman soothed her for a moment before stepping off the road and onto the sidewalk.

"Where do you live?" she asked the child gently. "You do not look as if you are starving, like a stray..."

The little girl blinked at her, as if finally seeming to comprehend something. "You...you can understand me, can't you?"

"Yes, sweetie, I can." A set of purple eyes glowed from the hood pulled up over the female's head, and the warmth in them was for any young creature in distress. "Would you like me to take you home?"

The child looked at her and nodded, her lips trembling. "You are like...you are like the man who runs the place where I live...he can talk to us, too."

The young woman felt a smile curving her lips. "Oh, really? Then where do you live?"

As the kitten told her, the woman's thoughts drifted...

_Chinatown...the very place, the very shop I heard about, the place I meant soon to visit...to try and refill the empty gaps Papa left in my soul before he died..._

"Do you have a name?" she asked.

"I'll have to take a new one if my new owner wants to give me one, but the shop owner calls me Azure..."

* * *

"Dammit, D, you tryin' to get killed out there?" Leon Orcot barked at the owner of the small pet shop he was eating lunch at...or what passed for lunch, considering all the sweets loaded at the table. "You've managed to soak yourself out there twice this morning already; d'you wanna catch pneumonia?" 

Two eyes, one amber and the other a deep purple, glowed angrily from a very annoyed face of the shop manager. He removed his hand from the doorknob, where he had been about to once again set out in search of someone he cared about. "I do not see how this is your business, detective. One of my kittens..._my_ pets...is lost out there in that malestrom. You may act the ignorant buffoon all you like. Keep your nose to your own work catching killers and bank robbers. Mine is my animals."

_Cut it out_! Chris Orcot's thoughts rang out for D to hear. _Count is right to find that little girl...I was getting to like her! She was pretty!_

This caused the count to smile to himself, for just a moment.

"You want me to eat him?" growled T-chan, licking his lips viciously as he glared at Leon. "He ain't sauced today...he might be nice for a change..."

"No, T-chan, not today," D answered with infinite patience. "That ignorant oaf has his brother to care for...when I am not doing so, that is."

He reassured Chris, though, with a fond smile before laying his hand on the doorknob again.

"Hmmmph!" Leon just snorted. He hated being talked about as though he wasn't there.

They were all interrupted by a gentle knock on the door.

"Aw, dammit, a customer..." moaned T-chan. "Who knows...maybe it'll be a tasty one..."

D shot him a faintly annoyed glance before opening the door to reveal a small figure, hidden by a cloak that obscured her features from view. It hadn't helped much against the rain, for one glance told the pet shop owner she was drenched.

He stepped back quickly, his cheongsam flowing smoothly with his movements as he did so, to allow her entry. "Please come in. Welcome to my pet shop."

"I apologize for dripping on your floor," a quiet voice said. "But it was necessary that I stop by."

The instant she stepped through the door, the young woman felt a flash of..._something_...something she knew. She knew fate had pointed her to the right place.

D looked startled. "May I help you then?"

"Eventually, yes," she said quietly. "But not this time. I have someone here who misses her home."

To Leon, when she parted her cloak, tucked inside her arms was a tiny white kitten.

Chris and count D both saw a little girl clinging to the young woman's arms instead.

"Azure!" the Count was over there, lifting the child/kitten out of her arms at once and holding her up. "I have been searching everywhere for her..." He bowed quickly in thanks, asian fashion. She could have sworn his eyes were sparkling with sheer relief. "I thank you, so much...Where did you find her?"

"Just shy of being mowed down by a passing vehicle with an uncaring driver." This was said in a voice tinged with disgust.

"She ran out into the road and grabbed me," piped the little girl D held securely in his arms.

"That is right," said the young woman softly. "And she told me she was from here, and lost. So I simply brought her home where she belonged."

The words tingled across D's senses..._she told her?..._but it was Leon who spoke up outright about it.

"How could a kitten tell you that, pray tell?" he asked, forgetting that more and more often lately the words of animals like Pon-Chan and T-chan were ringing through loud and clear to his mind. It had to be the Count's influence that had something to do with that...

"Well maybe if people would open their ears once in a while and_ listen _instead of just _hearing, _perhaps they'd catch a whisper or two now and then." The young woman reached up and pulled back her hood.

She was small, and long, light blonde curls was drawn back from her face by a simple ponytail. She wore a fairly simple purple shirt and blue jeans, although it was obvious she was soaking wet. She looked around at all the animals in the front of the store with interest.

To her eyes, she could see them as both animal and human form...and she chose to see them as their human selves.

However, when her purple eyes met Count D's purple-and-amber ones, his own eyes widened sharply and he felt something shoot down his spine like a bullet.

_Oh, gods...she can see them!_ Something sang along his blood, something only one meeting another even remotely like himself would know. _She had...she had...and yet...and yet something was different...her _blonde_ hair...and her eyes, which were purple, but the _shape_...something rang through so strongly and yet she didn't look completely the part..._

The young woman felt it also. She'd passed this shop before and it tingled on her senses. The sense of another...another like her father had been...and the smells...and the animals...the sense of familiarity was almost overwhelming. It gnawed at an emptiness within her that had steadily and painfully grown over the last months.

_Damn you, Papa...why did you have to destroy the only part of my life that truly gave me happiness?_

Count D blinked suddenly, and looked the rest of her over.

"Oh, my, forgive my manners," he said quickly. "You are so kind to have brought Azure back, and you are wet to the very skin. Sit down and let me pour you some tea."

"You won't mind your chair getting wet, will you?" she asked, gingerly removing her cloak and sitting down.

The Count took it from her and hung it up nearby. "The chair will dry, but obviously you need to dry, too. And the walk must have been long, so just sit back for now, all right?" He picked up the child/kitten once more. "I'll return this little one to her mother-she's been frantic-and I'll be right back and pour you some tea."

He opened the back door and disappeared.

Leon looked her over a moment with that 'say, she's not bad looking' grin of his.

"You from around here?" he asked casually.

"I moved back to the area a few days ago," she answered him evenly, and pointedly ignored his roving glance. It didn't take a genius to figure out he probably did this to every woman who crossed his path.

Leon didn't have time to give this a second thought. His watch beeped, and he cursed silently.

"Damn, time for me to get on duty...Chris, you be a good kid now, ok? Much as D annoys me, don't be too much of a pain in the ass."

_Okay, big bro. _The words rang clearly in the young woman's startled mind..._this boy moves in this world...that is unusual for a human boy_...but he only smiled and waved at what must be his much-older brother.

Leon vanished outside the door with a bang.

"So he's your big brother?" she asked casually as the child flopped back down in his chair and reached for a sugary treat from the overloaded table nearby.

_Yes...and so you can hear me like the Count does? _he did not look totally amazed at this revalation. _Isn't this place cool or what? The Count calls this a pet shop, but for some strange reason he sells people_.

"People?" It took a moment, but the young woman suddenly realized what this place must look like through this mute child's eyes. She suddenly had a good idea of why he could see what most others could not see, and exist in what to him must be a haven, a paradise.

_Yeah, people...you know, like the ones all around us? _The little boy made a careless gesture around him.

"Yes, I understand," she answered with a smile, lifting up a curious little girl who was trying to crawl into her lap, wanting to investigate further.

"It's nice to have another one of us around, who can understand us!" she trilled lightly in a little-girl voice. "We love Chris and all, but it'd be nice to have another playmate! I'm Pon-chan, by the way," she added as an afterthought.

The young woman smiled and could not resist hugging this child with the sunny disposition. "You're a sweet one," she murmured, the memory of this overwhelming her-_it had been so long_!-"I've missed being around all of those I used to have, those like you I cared about so much..."

"Those like us, huh?" said a growly voice, and the young woman was momentarily startled to see a teenage boy with sharp teeth and horns stalk in front of her. A momentary flash of his true form made her blink.

"I guess I won't eat you," he said wickedly. "Shame, though...you look pretty tasty..."

"I am sure the Count feeds you enough for even a young Totetsu to be satisfied," she answered him pertly, not at all scared. _They are so rare...gods how long has it been since I have seen one of those? I didn't even know there were any in America...and really, there shouldn't be..._

"Young women taste the best!" he answered, purposefully trying to needle her. "C'mon, just a little nibble...a finger maybe..." he lifted one of her hands and held it almost lovingly.

"T-Chan, quit acting silly," quipped Pon-chan. "Besides, after all you snarfed at lunch you can't be hungry now."

"I didn't get dessert!" he pretended to whine.

"Can't you see she isn't afraid of you either?" the little girl persisted. "Lay off, T-chan."

The young woman added to this by smiling at him cheerfully. No, she wasn't afraid.

"Ah, well," he muttered, and slid off the chair to flop on the floor by her feet. "The kid's right...my stomach is full anyways. I couldn't even nibble your fingers, lady, truthfully..."

"...And I am sure she'd appreciate keeping all of hers, T-chan," said a light voice, and suddenly Count D appeared from the back corridor, a small, winged creature on his shoulder.

For the first time the young woman looked at him a little more closely. He was dressed in traditional chinese fashion, although, the young woman thought with dismay, ignorant westerners would call it a "dress". There was a rabbit-bat looking creature on his shoulder. He had very...she had to search for the word here, attractive features, in a beautiful-male-female sort of way.

Another thought caused a momentary knot in her stomach. He so strongly reminded her of her own father it was eerie. They didn't look exactly alike of course, but...considering...something in his eyes seemed to echo from times long past, to guard something he knew he had to do. She remembered her father looking this way at times...

_Leon had to run, Count_, said Chris, who was finishing eating another piece of cake. _This girl here's been getting friendly with Pon-chan and T-chan._

"Yes, I heard enough of it from the back hallway," answered the Count. "The kitten is safe with her mother."

He reached for some hot tea and poured it into a traditional-looking saucer, and handed it to her. She slipped one hand under it with her other hand around it in the appropriate fashion, something that made him smile to himself. Good. She had manners, unlike that overgrown gremlin Orcot...

She smiled to herself as a plesant tingling from the hot cup soothed her cold hands. She took a sip of tea and nearly choked for a moment, though.

He blinked at her. "Is it too hot?" he asked.

She shook her head. "No," she said. "You think I'd be used to sugar but...this is a tad sweeter than I normally have it, that's all."

"Are you a sugar-fiend then, like the Count?" asked Pon-chan innocently, hugging her leg.

The young woman had to lower her cup and laugh quietly. "I do have an itch for it once in a while," she answered. "Good a reason as any to learn how to be handy in a kitchen."

_Can you bake treats too_? asked Chris eagerly. _The count is so good at that_...

The young woman smiled at the boy as the Count handed her a sweet pastry on a small plate. "It was practically a requirement," she answered him. "If you thought I was bad with sugar-thank you, Count-well...papa was worse..."

Her voice trailed off, and her eyes went distant momentarily. She used a fork to carefully break off a piece of pastry and automatically put it in her mouth. The sweetness of it tingled to her toes.

"Kyu," said the little winged creature on the Count's shoulder. He suddenly took flight, flapping silently over to her shoulder instead, settling there and peering at her in a most intense way.

The young woman blinked. _A creature she did not recognize, and did not have a human form? _That was strange...

"Hello there," she said quietly, and broke off a piece of pastry and handed it to him. "Want a snack?"

"Kyu!" he said happily, and nuzzled her. She smiled and reached up, touching him between his little horns, and did not react to the vague feeling that flashed through her..._there had to be something more to this little one than a cute little creature._

It only lasted an instant, so fast she wasn't sure really what she felt. What she knew, and there still was so much more her father had failed to tell her.

_Q-chan likes you_, remarked Chris, putting aside his own plate.

"Then I am fortunate," she smiled at him. "He's unique...it is rare that I see one I do not recognize..."

"Kyuu..." chirped Q-chan through a mouthful of pastry, clinging to her shoulder till it was gone. He managed to do so without spilling a crumb on her, and then chirped again in thanks before flapping from her shoulder back to Count D's.

The young woman's tinkling laughter filled the room.

"You are truly remarkable," she reassured him.

A faint rose came over his face, and Chris suppressed a smile. Q-chan _blushing_...

Many of the other creatures that roamed freely about the pet shop were coming closer, now, and the young woman found herself the object of intense scrutiny. She laid her plate aside with a deep swallow.

"Funny," said a human shaped cat, picking up her hand in his and absently studying her fingers. "You don't have the same...sense, the same feel, as the detective or his brother..."

"That is right," said a human monkey, idly picking up one of her damp curls and looking at it closely. "You seem...more like the Count, really...and yet..." he shrugged, not able to quite find the words. "Actually, I am pretty sure you _are_..."

The young woman's pale cheeks stained with a blush. "I understand," she said quietly. "All of Papa's animals, those I cared for, remarked the same thing to me when they first met me."

A bright blue bird, an older and wiser creature, fluttered down and hovered over her hand a moment. Obligingly the young woman reached out a finger so she could alight on it.

"What does it matter, that minor difference?" the bird chirped. "I can see plain as day the world you were meant to move in..."

The young woman's blush deepend slightly.

_What do they mean_? asked Chris quietly to the count.

The count did not answer directly, and for just a moment, the young woman's gaze went past the bird and stared directly into his eyes--a look of deep concern.

Quickly the Count decided to change the subject. "Chris, I think Junrei and Shuko both wanted to see you today. Kanan's her usual grumpy self but I think you'll brighten her day too."

_Okay_! Chris took a last gulp of the tea that he'd been holding in his hands and set it back on the table in front of him. _Kanan's no different than my brother. __I'll tell them about our visitor, Count...by the way, what is your name? _he suddenly asked to the young woman.

She seemed to come out of the trance she'd been in while talking, in Chris' eyes, to the blue lady who'd been standing beside her, holding her hand and saying something Chris could not hear.

"My name is Aya," she answered quietly. "Aya Kynah."

_Aya_, repeated Chris. _That is a pretty name...I'm going to see Shuko and the other two girls now, Count!_

"Have a good time," the pet shop owner answered him with a smile as Chris flung open the door that led down the myriad of hallways behind it and dissappeared.

Aya let out a deep breath she did not realize she'd been holding. Count D turned to look at her, that smile still on his face...or plastered there, one.

Aya wondered if he knew that she'd seen that sort of smile so often on her Papa's face that she'd learned long ago to see right through it to what he'd always really felt.

"He seems to be a good child," was all she said aloud. "But...I do not think he'd understand...not yet."

"No," said the Count quietly, reaching for the teapot and refilling her teacup, before sitting down across from her. "And when he regains his voice and leaves this world, he still would unlikely ever fully understand. One day he will rejoin normal human life and he cannot exist in this one at the same time."

Aya's purple eyes showed a shade of distress. "That world...can never truly be my world," she said quietly. She sighed as Pon-Chan hugged her and smiled. "And yet...Papa tried to keep me in that world as much as he acknowledged I moved in this one. Then right before he died..."

Suddenly Aya dropped her eyes and buried her face in Pon-Chan's curls.

"What happened?" asked the Count quietly, a few stray things about what she was saying falling into place with a disturbing clarity.

"He...he tried to..." Aya lifted her eyes, which were tearless but full of distress now, and looked past him.

_This was insane_; she'd never been able to tell the truth to anybody before. She was _never_ supposed to tell the total truth to a human, even though the Count wasn't...The Count was a stranger, and yet...

...She felt it with a deep instinct; she could trust him despite the path she knew he'd chosen; fate had led her to one who could possibly sort out her deep sense of confusion about herself...

Suddenly her eyes looked directly into his again, and the Count felt himself pierced to the core as he realized..._she saw right through him_. Past his smile, past his outward calmness.

"Papa tried to distance me from this world completely," she whispered. "He liquidated everything...found homes and shipped out every animal I'd ever loved and cared for...they were all suddenly _gone_...and papa was dead..."

She dropped her eyes again, and the implication of her words crashed in on the Count hard. She was...she really and truly _was_...but the fact she was female...it had to mean...

"Did he lose his mind in the days before he died?" it wasn't impossible, thought the Count ruefully. His kind could live a very_, very_ long time, but they weren't completely immortal. They could live a_ long _time...if something did not cut them down first, hard as that might be to do.

"I do not know," she whispered. "He just...withdrew completely...and suddenly all I loved was gone...and _he_ was gone."

He _had_ to have lost his wits utterly, and that wasn't easy for their kind either, the Count decided. He should have realized that by doing so he was destroying something his child was meant to live for...

His _daughter_.

Again came the disturbing realization. Her father must have strayed, seriously _strayed _from the path he should have led...

"Where is your mother?" he asked gently.

She raised her eyes to him. She did not want to confirm it, but it was the only answer she could give. And she could not lie. It was painful, but she had to admit to the fact that her blood carried pollution.

"My mother died with my birth," she answered simply. The truth reflected in her purple eyes, which had dropped all sheilding for just a moment, long enough for him to see past them a ways.

_There it was_. No bush-beating. She was from his world, but she was also from theirs. Caught square in the middle. He could think of nothing that would have made her father do what she said he had done. That he should _never_ have done.

He should have easily forseen what kind of disaster that could bring. Not only raising her in utter confusion about her destiny, but the Count was willing to bet he hadn't fully educated her on all of her abilities.

It was all to obvious to him that while she might be part human, she walked fully in this world.

He did not think it was possible for another Kami, from the tribe of his ancestors...of the tiny handful that had been left, less than the fingers on one of his hands...those few survivors who'd given themselves up to the earth with the same vow on their lips, and became who they were...

...the only explanation was that something had driven him mad, wasn't it? Possibly long before then, if he'd been so willing to raise...

"Do you have any relatives left living?" he asked neutrally.

Aya regarded him for a moment...a long moment this time, before answering. _Yes, I can trust him_.

"Just my grandfather. I have only seen him once, ever. When I was five. My mother was the the first cause of their difficulty. My _birth_ pretty much completed the rift."

"Kyu..." said Q-chan, sounding startled, and D's mismatched eyes went wide.

"It is my understanding that my ancestors did occassionally fall under the influence of love," she said quietly, and her voice hardened. "Usually when very young...and Papa was young at the time. I think Grandfather was very displeased but figured he'd let time control this one, that eventually Papa would lose her to death and learn the folly of such love. Their relationship was strained, but did not crash for many years."

She paused, and drew in a deep breath. Count D had a disturbing feeling he knew what she'd say next.

"My mother had always been warned ever against getting with child in the first place. She was too frail. And Grandfather had no idea if a child was even meant to happen between a human and my father, if it was even possible, so he did not consider that Papa would ever father a child in any way but the fashion he should have, the fashion of his kind. Instead, one day...my mother dropped a bombshell; announcing she was with child."

Aya shivered momentarily, and Pon-chan hugged her reassuringly. The pain of the tale always haunted her. She was the cause, she could not help it, she knew she was the cause.

"Grandfather exploded, and cut off all contact immediately. He declared my father was not fit to be his son, and carry on his line, or their purpose. To him I was nothing more than a mongrel child who polluted his bloodline. My mother did indeed die with my birth, and she was only with child for a few months because Papa was not human. Papa indeed learned the hard way the folly grandfather claimed came of love between people, because it destroyed his heart."

"But he did meet you eventually," said Count D, not sure of what else to say. He was too stunned.

Aya's purple eyes misted with the memory, and she could feel her grandfather taking her hand for the very first time...his well-manicured hands had been soft, but deceptively strong and self-assured.

"Yes. I am not sure what made him change his mind. It was my fifth birthday. My father dressed me in the fashion of our ancestors, in ancient chinese fashion. Grandfather came, and I could not tell him and Papa apart except that his hair was done differently.

"He looked me over, held my hand, talked to me. Took me out alone and showed me some of the wonders of nature I'd learned about, but had not yet ever seen. He spoke of how fantastic the creatures of the world were and how we needed to protect them all, and he spoke of the venom he felt for those who carelessly destroyed all in their path. He spoke of the creatures he cared for, and sometimes gave people who wanted them for pets. Not quite in the fashion you do, Count, but more quietly. Still always with a contract."

D regarded her with a neutral expression. This kind of talk indeed sounded very familiar.

"Finally...he hugged me and said I was not at all what he supposed I would be, because of my mother's blood. He told my father to complete my education, and to teach me everything I needed to know, and how to use what I was born with. I was not the grandson he had expected, but he said he had seen I could carry on what their line lived for."

"Your father did not do that...at least not all of it," D surmised, still trying to get over his surprise at how a line, so dedicated from those ancient times, could have gotten so out of hand.

"I have the knowledge to care for all kinds of ancient creatures. I can use some of my abilities. I know most of the old stories. But...not all. And there are some things...Papa kept saying he did not want me to know yet. One day he would teach me all. But he did not and..."

Aya closed her eyes and said nothing more.

"But you wanted that knowledge," said D quietly.

"Yes," Aya whispered.

"You prefer living in this world."

"Yes."

"And humans?" this one he should not really have asked, but D could not help his curiosity this time.

She drew in a deep breath. "Humans..." she whispered. "I have had...little use for other humans. They make..." she hugged Pon-chan gently. "They make me sad, they make me feel pain. But..."

She did not go on, much to D's puzzlement, and he realized he had very much wanted to hear her deeper thoughts on humanity.

These thoughts she kept to herself.

* * *

Aya was quiet for several minutes, staring into space and sipping her tea. Pon-chan remained snuggled in her lap and several others stayed close, lounging around her feet or the backs of the chair, or curled up beside her where space permitted it. Q-chan flapped back over to her shoulder and sat there, looking at her quizzically as if thinking about the situation, too. 

D also lapsed into silence, drinking his tea and closing his mismatched eyes, like he was in deep thought.

Aya's eyes also closed. The incense...she remembered this incense so well...it all felt so painfully familiar, and she felt her heart nearly crack for a moment before she quelled the feeling. It could not be helped...could it?

"I have missed this," her voice came to him suddenly, and his eyes opened quickly.

"What?" he asked, and she gestured around them to the pet shop.

"This," she repeated. "Papa died three months ago...I had passed your shop before, and sensed something...in this place. I have missed feeling others around me like this...like those I used to care for. I only just moved back to Los Angeles. I had intended coming in here anyways after I had surveyed everything on my property, and find some new companions."

D nodded. That could easily be arranged. And forget any real contract. She'd know not to break any rules of caring for any animals he gave her, if all her knowledge of animal care was intact enough.

"What about your grandfather?" he asked gently.

"Him..." Aya trailed off for a moment, before looking up again. "I've yet to truly hear from him. I always sensed that there were times he'd watch me from a distance, but I have not seen him since that day when I was five years old. I sometimes get things from him in the mail, or delivered by one of those pets he cares for...but I've not seen him, directly. He'll have to eventually, and I sense that. I'm his only living descendant."

Finally Aya sighed and laid down her teacup. "Papa always spoke of me finding my own path. Grandfather will likely try to draw me down the path he thinks I should follow, should that time ever come. I can only guess here, but deep inside, I know that is what he likely would prefer out of me. In the meantime..." she laid down her teacup and gave Pon-chan a little squeeze before sliding her to the floor.

Aya did not say what she would do in the meantime.

"I should go," she said quietly. "I have very much enjoyed meeting you, Count D."

He smiled and bowed to her. "And I as well. Thank you for rescuing Azure. You will come back when you are ready to obtain some new companions?"

"I will," she said, with a smile that oddly resembled his own, the one he presented to his customers.

"Goodbye," she whispered, reaching for her wet cloak, although the sun was now shining outside. Almost before he could blink, she was gone.

* * *

Count D sighed and leaned heavily against the door. 

What a situation. He'd never thought to have encountered something like this. Half his kind. And half _human_.

She had called herself polluted, a mongrel. Was that the case? Did her human blood not immediately bar her from following the kind of path he, his father, and his grandfather...all of them had chosen?

Or her own ancestors from her own father's side, from their shared tribe? Those three or four who'd survived the old genocide?

They'd been human themselves, till then, able to talk to the animals, regarded as preistesses, magic-makers, hermits...

And after the slaughter, those who had lived had made that vow of vengence, laid down to die, and given their bodies over to the earth...and were no longer human.

Count D sighed and thought.

All her abilities were there, or developing, though. Even if she did not know how to use them all. None of his pets had seen reason to feel disgust; they'd only sensed the influence of her father's blood. Her mother's seemed hardly present in what they thought. From what she'd indicated her grandfather seemed to agree. All her father had done was cause a big mess in her life.

Count D found himself really confused on the situation. It had to be nothing compared to the confusion she felt, though. She moved so easily in the world that humans had long since forgotten to walk in. His world, the world of those around him. Shouldn't that be enough, and her human blood not matter?

He just didn't know. Certainly not any more than she did.

Only time would tell.


End file.
